Ministry of Justice

Chief Coroner’s sixth and seventh annual reports to the Lord Chancellor

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Alex Chalk) has made the following Written Statement."I am pleased to lay and publish the Chief Coroner’s combined sixth and seventh annual reports to the Lord Chancellor on the operation of coroner services under section 36 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (‘the 2009 Act’). The joint report covers both 2018 to 2019 and 2019 to 2020. Publication of the sixth report was delayed last year and, in light of the emerging Covid-19 pandemic at the start of 2020, it was considered preferable to postpone its publication until later in the year and release it as a joint edition with the seventh report. In particular, the Chief Coroner’s report sets out:The work that he as well as coroners, their officers and their staff have achieved to manage the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic;The continuing work to promote consistency in the resourcing of and practices in coroner offices across England and Wales;The training and guidance that coroners and their officers have received and the engagement with a wide range of stakeholders; andRecommendations to improve coroner services further.Annexed to the report are the Chief Coroner’s revised “A Model Coroner Area” blueprint, the list of cases over twelve months old reported to the Chief Coroner and tables of senior and area coroners’ salaries.I am very grateful to His Honour Judge Mark Lucraft QC for building so effectively on his previous achievements as well as those of his predecessor, His Honour Sir Peter Thornton QC. I also thank him for his excellent and much-appreciated service since October 2016 as he now moves on to become the full-time Recorder of London. I am particularly grateful that he continued to serve as Chief Coroner over the last months to guide and support coroners in facing the incredibly difficult challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic.I am grateful too to all coroners and their officers and other staff, for having supported the Chief Coroner to improve services for bereaved people and for their valued and continuing frontline work. Their work in managing the impact of the pandemic on their own services but also more widely, in support of their Local Resilience Fora, has been inestimable.The report will be available online, at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chief-coroners-combined-annual-report-2018-to-2019-and-2019-to-2020."

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

FCDO Services

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: FCDO Services operates as a trading fund of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Notwithstanding Covid-19, I have set the following ambitious performance targets for 2020-2021:Achievement of the return on capital employed (ROCE) of at least 3.5% (weighted average before accounting for costs directly associated with Covid-19);A productivity ratio of at least 80%, measuring actual billable hours versus available billable hours (Q3 and Q4 only – normalised for the impact of Covid-19);An in-year customer satisfaction rating average at least of 80% (Q3 and Q4 only - normalised for the impact of Covid-19); andAn average Your Say score for “My Manager” measuring 63%.In addition to the performance targets, FCDO Services will continue to maintain high levels of staff engagement for 2020-2021 throughout the period.FCDO Services will report to Parliament on its success against these targets through its Annual Report and Accounts for 2020-2021.FCDO Services is a Trading Fund of the FCDO. It provides a range of integrated, secure services worldwide to the FCDO and other UK Government departments, supporting the delivery of government agendas. Services include protective security, estates and construction, cloud computing, communications and monitoring, logistics, translation and interpreting. This is combined with a portfolio of global maintenance work. FCDO Services also manages the UK National Authority for Counter Eavesdropping (UK NACE), helping protect UK assets from physical, electronic and cyber-attack.

NATO Parliamentary Assembly

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: My rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Dominic Raab) has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement: The hon. Member for Lanark and Hamilton East (Angela Crawley) has replaced the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife (Douglas Chapman) as a Member of the United Kingdom delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Cabinet Office

Prosperity Fund Annual Report 2019/20

Lord True: I wish to inform the House of the publication of the Prosperity Fund’s fourth Annual Report for the Financial Year 2019/20.Over the last four years, the Prosperity Fund has aimed to promote economic growth and reduce poverty in developing countries. As well as contributing towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Fund has responded to the increasing demand from developing countries to build deeper trade, investment partnerships, and economic relations with other countries.I am placing a copy of the Prosperity Fund Annual Report 2019/20 in the library of both Houses. The publication of the report reflects the Government’s continuing commitment to transparency in the delivery of Official Development Assistance.Prosperity Fund Annual Report 2019/20 (pdf, 6902.6KB)

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Independent Review of Insurance

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: My Hon Friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Domestic Environment) (Rebecca Pow) has today made the following statement.On 27th December 2019 my Rt Hon Friend the then Secretary of State (Theresa Villiers) commissioned an independent review following the severe flooding in South Yorkshire in November 2019. The River Don recorded its highest ever peak flows at Rotherham and Doncaster, with South Yorkshire experiencing its wettest November on record - seeing over two and a half times its average rainfall and over 760 properties reported as having flooded.This independent review has been led by Amanda Blanc, former chair of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) who was appointed on 14 April 2020 and was supported by BMG Research. Amanda Blanc has provided me with a comprehensive report that sets out her findings into why some residents of Doncaster did not have sufficient insurance cover, and in some cases no insurance at all. Where necessary, it considers and makes recommendations for action to mitigate the impact of future flood events. (Full terms of reference for the Review can be found on Gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/flood-insurance-review-2020-blanc-review/terms-of-reference-flood-insurance-review-2020)I would like to thank Amanda for her investigation and recommendations, which the Government will now consider.Report FindingsThis report sets out the findings of the review in relation to the level of insurance cover held by those affected in Doncaster, the barriers they may have faced in obtaining cover and whether there are any systemic issues in the provision of flood insurance.The report identifies that 95% of homeowners were able to confirm that they had both buildings and contents insurance. This compares with 94% of households at risk of flooding in Defra’s national 2018 survey looking at the availability and affordability of flood insurance. I am pleased that this shows the sustained availability of home insurance for homeowners especially in this area of high flood risk. However, amongst homeowners who had insurance, 6% of buildings insurance policies did not cover flooding, and 7% of contents insurance policies did not cover flooding. The report also found that there were significant differences between the insurance cover held by homeowners and tenants, and that “owner-occupiers were generally far better protected than renters”. Whilst tenants are responsible for arranging their contents insurance, they do not organise their buildings insurance as this is the responsibility of landlords. The evidence shows that only 25% of tenants had contents insurance that covered flood damage. The report identifies reasons why tenants did not have suitable contents insurance that covered against the risk of flooding, such as the cost of the insurance, the time it takes to renew the insurance policy, and not being able to find a quote that included flood cover. Report RecommendationsThe report makes 12 recommendations for actions that can be taken by the insurance industry, Flood Re, landlords, local authorities, Government and others to help enable homes and businesses to access sufficient insurance cover for flooding, while also informing any future policy decisions in this area:Four recommendations focus on the role of insurers, insurance brokers and their representative bodies in helping customers find the most suitable flood insurance to cover individual needs.Two recommendations focus on the need for landlords to make sure tenants are adequately supported in the case of a flood event.Two recommendations relate to the need for further evidence gathering at a national scale, through a repeat of a national 2018 survey on the affordability and availability of insurance.One recommendation calls for Flood Re to reduce the cost of its contents insurance premium for Council Tax band A and B properties.Other recommendations focus on the need for increased awareness of flood risk for communities, highlighting the role of Local Authorities, the Environment Agency and representative bodies.The report will be published today on Gov.uk.This Review is essential in identifying some of the barriers that are in place for residents in high flood risk areas and understanding how we can take positive action to improve the protection available to residents moving forward.The Government will be working with the insurance industry, Flood Re and the Environment Agency to explore the recommendations within the report and will respond formally to the recommendations in due course.